Final-bound Roísín Ní Riain on cusp of third Paralympic medal

Ireland’s Roisin Ni Riain. Pic: Tom Maher/Inpho

Roísín Ní Riain will swim for a third Paralympic medal this evening after posting the third fastest qualifying time in Thursday morning’s SB13 100m breaststroke heats.

The Limerick teenager, who already has silver from the 100m backstroke and bronze from the 200m individual medley, came into the breaststroke event ranked third and it was in third she sailed into the final.

Ní Riain turned second at the wall and maintained that position to touch in 1:19.05. Her time was just outside her 1:18.99 PB which she set when finishing fourth at last year’s World Championships.

Her heat was won by Great Britain’s Rebecca Redfern in 1:16.40, far and away the outstanding breaststroker in the field. The second fastest final qualifier, Olivia Chambers of the USA, was only marginally faster than Ní Riain when winning the opening heat in 1:18.92.

“I wanted to get out and have a good morning swim to get into tonight. It’s a case of job done. It’s going to be a tough race (the final), a fast one. I’ll have to look back at the race and see where I can improve on for later,” said Ní Riain.

“I just need to clean up a few little things and see where that will get me this evening.” 

The final goes to the blocks at 6.33pm where Ní Riain will bid to become only the second female Irish Para swimmer, after Mairead Berry in 2000, to win three medals at the one Games.